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State Criminal Justice Network Legislative Update

Editor’s Note: Some NACDL affiliates are in the enviable position of being able to advocate for progressive legislative measures while also effectively staving off regressive legislative policies. This past session the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (SDACDL) hired Lindsey Riter-Rapp of Riter, Rogers, Wattier & Northrup, LLP. Rapp helped neutralize some of the most odious features of a habeas corpus “reform” law that brings South Dakota’s state habeas law closer to the federal standard. She helped kill laws that would have redefined vehicular homicide and vehicular battery as “violent” offenses. She pushed through an amendment to a law eliminating the statute of limitations for rape, so that it only applies to forcible rape, not statutory rape or rapes when the alleged victim was too intoxicated to consent to sex.

Unfortunately, “Caylee’s Law” — implemented in response to the disappearance of Caylee Anthony — sailed through. But Riter-Rapp established SD

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